Christmas meal serves up comfort

Wednesday

Dec 26, 2007 at 2:00 AM

HYANNIS — After Harvey Ozer's mother passed away, he needed to move out of his parents' house. But the former machinist and cook, who is originally from Worcester, had nowhere to go. And a car accident had left him without work.

MARY ANN BRAGG

HYANNIS — After Harvey Ozer's mother passed away, he needed to move out of his parents' house. But the former machinist and cook, who is originally from Worcester, had nowhere to go. And a car accident had left him without work.

To get some help, Ozer turned to the homeless shelter on Winter Street and The Salvation Army next door. And help — clothing, food, a place to live for 14 months — is exactly what he received, said Ozer, 48, who now rents a one-bedroom apartment with a government subsidy.

He was one of about 210 people who yesterday ate a homemade lunch of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie and other desserts at a free Christmas midday meal offered at The Salvation Army at 100 North St. by the Cape Cod Synagogue.

"We all do a little something here," Ozer said of The Salvation Army, which is both a church and a social services charity. "It's like a social life. I know a lot of people here."

Volunteers for the synagogue, which is also in the neighborhood, delivered lunches yesterday to home-bound people and group homes. Volunteers including Zoey Hall, 12, and Catie McShera, 10, both of Marstons Mills, also served food starting at around 11:30 a.m. in the lunch room at The Salvation Army.

Members of the synagogue have prepared the annual meal for 52 years, according to spokesman Stanley Issokson.

At noon yesterday in the lunch room, a family with three children ate at a table near the door with one youngster loudly — and with encouragement from adults — singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas." At another table, two women chewed in companionable silence, one of them a former shelter resident and now a bell-ringer for The Salvation Army who mans a donation kettle at a supermarket on Route 130. A man seated near Ozer explained his theories about the Catholic pope to whomever would listen.

And outside, among the smokers, John Derendinger Jr., 28, formerly of Pennsylvania and now living for 10 months on Cape Cod, said he volunteers as a bell-ringer, too. "I moved here because I was looking for work," Derendinger said.

Mary Ann Bragg can be reached at mbragg@capecodonline.com.

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